


The Green Engineer

by cyberlord4444



Series: The Paladin of TF2 [1]
Category: Team Fortress 2, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Never forget your wrench
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 04:33:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16360874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyberlord4444/pseuds/cyberlord4444
Summary: Have you ever wondered how Pidge got so good at building communications systems from junk? Short answer, her uncle taught her everything she knows.





	The Green Engineer

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Highnoon in the Universe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10990644) by [Betery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Betery/pseuds/Betery). 



_5 years ago_

Katie couldn't help but bounce in her seat a little. Normally she only got to see her uncle Dell when he came over for her Birthday or Christmas, now she was going to be staying with him for a whole month. Her brother was at summer camp, and her parents were going on vacation, so they decided to leave her with family rather than hire a sitter. The fact that they had been driving for 4 hours might have also played a role.

"Settle down," her mom Colleen chuckled, "we're almost there."

Katie flattened her face against the window, trying to get a glimpse of her uncle's house, but frowned when she saw nothing but a small plateau. "Where is it?"

"You'll see," Colleen said as she pulled a remote out of the glove compartment and triggered it, causing a holographic image of a rocky wall to shut off to reveal a canyon road flanked by sentry turrets, which were panning back and forth making little beeping noises.

Katie's eyes widened as they passed though, "Did uncle Dell make that?"

Colleen nodded as they pulled up to a large wooden building. Standing in front was a man wearing overalls over a red work-shirt, a hard hat and goggles, a single glove, and a huge smile. "'bout time you got here sis."

Before Colleen could reply, Katie had shot out of the car and latched onto him like a tactical cuteness missile. "Uncle Dell."

"How many times do I hafta tell ya to call me Engie," said Dell Conager, otherwise known as Engineer, as he ruffled her hair.

* * *

A while later Engie was working on a machine while Katie helped as best as her 11 year old self could, namely passing tools. Eventually she couldn't help but ask a question. "Hey uncle Engie?" 

"Yeah darlin'?"

"How'd you get so good at being an engineer?"

Engie set his wrench on the table as he turned to look at her. "Can't rightly say. I've always been good at solving problems. Not problems like 'what is beauty?', 'cause that would fall under your problems of philosophy. I solve practical problems. And that's all an Engineer is, someone who solves practical problems."

"If it's that easy, could I become an engineer too?" Katie asked, a hopeful glimmer in her eye.

"I don't see why not," Engie said as he removed his helmet and placed it on Katie's, adorably too small, head. "There we go, startin' to look like one already."

"Could you teach me?"

"Sure thing, first lesson, the two things an engineer needs at all times are a wrench, and duct tape," Engie said as he pulled a massive roll of the stuff from his tool belt.

"Duck tape?"

"Looooots of duct tape," Engie said, unable to hold back a small chuckle at the, regrettably wide-spread, mispronunciation. "If you have those, and the right parts, you can fix just about anything."

As Engie started to go over a few more specific lessons, starting with how to splice two wires together, Katie couldn't help but think that this was going to be the best month ever.

* * *

_Present_

Pidge floated through the space junkyard she currently found herself in. After the mission to rescue Allura went sideways at _literally_  the last second, she had become separated from her fellow Paladins, and worse, the castle. At least she found a colony of fluffy space critters to keep her company, she was going to bring at least one of them back with her. "So, any ideas on how to get out of here girl?" Katie asked the Green Lion. While some would consider talking to their craft as an early symptom of space madness, the fact that the Green Lion was alive and could answer back negated that assessment. Regrettably, the response was basically the telepathic equivalent of a shrug.

Pidge glared at her Lion, "Some help you are." As she glared, something beyond the Lion caught her eye. Jetpacking over, she saw that it was a communications array, or to be more precise a heavily damaged one. This however did not deter her, as she was swimming in a veritable ocean of spare parts. As she started to celebrate, she cut herself off as she realized one very important fact. She had plenty of parts, the Green Lion had an entire storage compartment full of the Altean version of duct tape... her wrench was back on the Castle of Lions.

Pidge face-palmed so hard she was sure that she'd have broken her own nose if it wasn't for her helmet. She had left her wrench, one of the two things she should never be without, behind. It was a nice wrench too, a 12" adjustable crescent that her uncle had given her. "I don't suppose you have a wrench I could borrow," she asked the puffballs. They just stared blankly at her, like they do. Suddenly, Pidge got a message from her Lion, an image of her Bayard. Pidge was confused as she pulled it out, sure it could transform into a blade to cut the tape with, but it otherwise wouldn't be much help. However to her surprise, instead of transforming into the form she was familiar with, it became a wrench that resembled a cross between Engie's Southern Hospitality and Eureka Effect, with a dash of Altean aesthetics. Pidge's grin returned as she turned to her Lion, "Thanks a million girl." In response, her Lion spit(literally, it even sounds like it if done in an atmosphere) a roll of tape at her, which she caught in her free hand. "Let's get to work."

* * *

After several hours, and her entire stash of tape, Pidge had erected the most jury-rigged of jury-rigged antennas on the back of the Green Lion. After one last check of the connections, she floated up to the controls and turned it on. The screen lit up, for a few seconds, then sputtered and died. A puzzled look on her face, Pidge enacted step one on the Engineer's troubleshooting guide, turning it off and on again. As the same thing happened, her face turned to an irritated frown as she moved to step two, she summoned her Bayard-wrench and gave it a good old-fashioned whack. The screen turned on and stayed on, and as if waiting for its stage cue, the Castle of Lions exited a wormhole above her. "And that," she said to the puffballs, "is why you always carry a wrench."

 


End file.
